The traditional approach to materials development has been to design materials with enhanced performance. Advanced materials are generally designed to perform one function. One problem is that maximizing one property, for example, adhesion of a substance to a surface, affects other properties, for example, the release of the substance from the surface. Solutions to these problems have generally been focused on adding more components with the expectation of independently controlling each property. However, often times, the additional component then interacts with other materials in the composition, thus adversely affecting different properties.
Additionally, the addition of many different specialized components explains why many of today's products and parts are made of very complex materials sets. However, high complexity products are prone to malfunction, high cost, and significant waste generation.
A switchable surface has the unique property of changing between two states that have different physical properties when activated by a stimulus, for example, heat. The switch is controllable and reversible. The switching between different states is associated with changes in the physical properties of the composition. For example, the ability to switch the surface free energy of a composition is associated with control of properties such as adhesion and release of a substance from the surface of a different composition.
The ability of switching is enabled by incorporation of a switchable material which is ultimately responsible for the switching. Products made with switchable materials require fewer components, and are thus more reliable, have lower cost, and reduce waste.
In view of the above, there is a need for developing improved compositions that incorporate switchable materials. The focus of the present disclosure is on surfaces which can change their wettability (in other words their surface free energy) when activated by heat.